Full disclosure: I was unable to complete this story. Perhaps, the writing and narrative improve as the book progresses, however when faced with the choice of allocating my free time between either slogging through or doing something else I may enjoy, I saw little reason to continue.Complements to Nicholls, however, for tackling a characterization of Orcs not usually seen outside of Blizzard's "World of Warcraft" franchise. I'm fully sympathetic to the approach that token "evil mook" races deserve their day and that traditional black-and-white fantasy universes are wanting for deconstruction. The world of Orcs: First Blood even sounds incredible, Stryke (groan-worthy, I grant you) is the leader of a warband of enslaved Orc mercenaries tasked with hunting down a magical artifact for their master, an evil sorceress who must engage in dark rituals to acquire magic for power and survival. Magic, a once bountiful resource, has become finite and is quickly exhausting following the arrival of human beings, who are unknowingly causing the slow death of the entire world as a result. Caught between a Human v. Human religious war, the knowledge that the very world is dying, and a desire to simply survive and return home where they can live free again, the Orcs are finally given a voice and must decide where they stand, whether to rebel, and who to fight, for once. It's a great concept and vision, but likely requires a bit more technical prowess than what Nicholls displays, unfortunately. Nicholls' greatest weakness seems to be exposition, resulting in a lot of "tell" and little "show" throughout most of the text. In fantasy works, exposition is always expected and the challenge is to bring that information to the readers attention in an engaging way, to almost trick them into thinking it isn't. What we get here, instead, is a lot of "as you know" dialogue or "whatever happened to [insert special ability/character/item]" and repetitive character behaviors that result in dead-horse-beatings followed by a small bit of story progression and action, rinse, repeat. One character in particular attempts to stage coups or usurp control so often you'll think you missed a paragraph when Orcs are on the page and it doesn't happen. The exceptions to this pattern are a total of two: the opening chapter and the sporadic dream sequences. These sections are descriptive, engaging, hiding-the-ball in all the right ways and, as such, result in an enjoyable, engrossing read. The first chapter is particularly noteworthy for leaving appropriate breadcrumbs and narrative clues that give just enough so that, by its end, the reader's realization that the creatures with whom the characters are amidst battle are actually humans and other traditional "hero" races is equal parts logical, surprising, and organic. It's a shame that this narrative philosophy doesn't hold for the rest of the book, resulting in dull, contrived story telling with the impression of being rushed through to a next, better part that never comes.Perhaps hinted in the above, the narrative also seems to suffer from abrupt tonal shifts for reasons I cannot confidently state. My only guess can be that with the overall presentation of the book and the narrative being how I describe, there's an undertone - intentional or not - that the work may be for a younger audience. So to, say, introduce a character by having her rape a man, tear his heart out, and eat it at coitus, even if to demonstrate that character's evilness on the outset, kind of comes out of nowhere and comes off as extreme. Or, to casually mention the "stirrings of loins" of certain main characters for no other purpose than to simply note that their loins have stirred, just seems misplaced or forced, as if used to justify that, despite appearances, the work is, indeed, intended for adults. Of course, the result is quite the contrary here and creates the feeling that one is reading juvenile, gratuitous fan-fiction (though, I'm sure that has its audience).An unfortunate result, Nicholls' vision extends a bit outside his reach here. I hope to find another work of a similar concept, but more artfully done by another.
This was a very formulaic fantasy story, with a single twist - it was about the bad guys instead of the good guys. This was a great imagining of what orc culture would be outside of the rather one dimensional interpretation of J.R. Tolkien (no disrespect to the master intended - they were monsters, not characters in Lord of the Rings). They have everything that makes them scary - violence, strength, aggression, anger, and fierce fighting ability - but they also had real feelings, and a deep sense of camaraderie that I really appreciated. The writing certainly wasn't literary, but it got the point across. The fight scenes were vivid, if a bit repetitious and, dare I say, formulaic? But the simplicity of the writing makes this a very accessible story, and one that would probably be good for beginners to the fantasy genre. The strongest piece of the writing I felt was the dialog, with each character adopting a unique voice that really showcased their personality. Storywise, Orcs was again straight-forward. The story stuck to the formula - the troop of orcs needed to find a certain treasure, then had to overcome some sort of quest to retrieve it before the evil queen could, and there were two or three battles, with cliffhangers about whether certain characters would die or not. But the formula worked, and I kept reading, whether they were fighting trolls or vicious mer-people or religious fanatics. In the end, I still wanted the world to be saved from the evil queen. Then I got to the end, and the story fell apart for me. I won't give away exactly what happens, but I was not at all happy with the choice of the main character. I considered it the magical equivalent of deus ex machina combined with a main character fleeing his responsibilities. Sorry, Mr. Nichols, but you copped out on that one.All in all, I would consider this a good fantasy beach novel. Nothing special, but an enjoyable, mindless read. Follows all the formulas - but you know what? Formulas can work.
What do You think about Orcs (2004)?
Sometimes when I pick up books because the cover is neat and the topic sounds interesting I find a book that's a home run; usually though they're not that successful. Orcs attracted me with the cover and the prospective of being able to read about orcs, the mean terrible creatures of Tolkien and fantasy who fight to live or is that live to fight. As I started reading this book I realized that Mr. Nicholls orcs weren't our classical orcs I've ocme to enjoy, instead, they're closer to being mongols. Misunderstood by humans, moving about in daylight, riding horses, and being vicious in a fight, yep, sounds similar to a mongol. No wargs, no moving or doing at night, nor striving to further themselves. Augh, when I merge these "orcs" with a story that's cut from cardstock and predictable (once you're past the "orcs" doing heroics and able to kill tens of humans individually) I really started questioning this one. While Mr. Nicholls may have been trying to write a "different" story about orcs, I think he might have helped himself by giving readers something they could align to, but telling a story about mongols having it be as serial and teenagerish as this was drove me away. For me, a 1 star book that's to be avoided.
—Nathan Trachta
Okay, so perhaps reading this after The Brothers Karamazov wasn't a good idea, but I do usually like to read something light and genre after something more meaty. Not in this case. I was expecting something a little more humourous and parodic, but this book seemed to take itself very seriously, while being of that brand of contemporary fantasy that tries to make social commentary in a ham-fisted way (although making obvious connections between 'whiteness' and being human is kind of dehumanising [orc-ifying?] to those who are not privilidged with 'pink'...). I bought the book partially on the strength of the David Gemmell blurb which had 'wall to wall action...gritty, fast paced'. Maybe there was something more sinister during the ellipse...
—Jeremy
I finally finish the daunting/masochistic task of reading the 745 pages of crap that this book contains… now as promised my review:Look I’ve read crap in my life… but this was just ridiculous… if you ever played one of those random RPG games for the Game Boy back in the early 90’s you know what talking about here… you get your generic main character an Orc named Stryke, you also get the traditional cookie cutter motley crew of retards: Haskeer who is stubborn and stupid and is supposed to be the main source of “comical” relieve… Coilla, who steps forward as the mistress in distress in a couple of situations that made wish I was blind or illiterate… you also get your wise healer Alfray, who starts showing his skill by cutting off somebody’s leg and then cooking it to give the patient strength and a fast recovery… (Yes, the patient dies anyway) and Jub, a dwarf with some racial self-pity/shame issues… but wait there is more!!! You also get another cookie cutter character; the evil ruler Jennesta!!! She likes to wear a strap-on unicorn horn dildo to refill her magic powers from her ritualistic rapes!! But wait there is more!! You also get tour designated Gandalf, a human mage who likes to make cliché religious jokes and goes by the name of Serapheim… (Still wishing I was illiterate) After an attack on a random village and stealing and important artifact the Wolverines (believe it or not that’s the name of Stryke’s war band) decides to smoke some pellucid (this world’s equivalent of crack) that they find along with the artifact… they late because they were getting high and decide to make a run for it so their evil ruler don’t get upset, but in their way back they get attack and the artifact is stolen from them. in the process of getting the artifact back they discover that is a star shape thingy that has some of awesome powers! And that there are 4 more scattered around the world (they gets this information from a scholar gremlin) and so they decide to take on a quest of get them all in an adventured that will take the mighty Wolverines to great quests like getting a tear from an megalomaniac selfish bitch in some cave, fight stupid trolls in smelly caves, stealing from Nazi look alike religious freaks and, stupid besieged cities with magical geysers!!! Many times while I was reading this book I started to wonder… what horrible thing would I rather be doing instead of reading this book? Here is a few of the things I came up with:1. Cover my hand with crazy glue and then sprinkle it with glass chards and then masturbate with it…2. Listen to a Bon Jovi album.3. Talking to that crazy Jehovah witness near the Q38 bus stop.4. Play Final Fantasy X-2t.5. Call my mother.6. Running around the tiger mountain on the Bronx zoo while wearing only a raw meat jacket.7. Watch the teletubbies8. Read a harry potter book.9. Cover my genitalia with honey and then walk around naked in a bear cave.10. Watch an entire golf tournament in ESPN.I Alfonso Gutierrez give this piece of crap a 2 out of 5 because of the unicorn horn dildo!!
—The Crimson Fucker
